Mid Year Front Seal leak

[Jim H.]

Group:
I recently got my 327/350hp back and installed. For the most part all is fine and the engine works well after some fine tuning. I have a leaky front seal in the timing chain cover. I'm told by the engine builder that I should expect some seepage, but besides seepage I have a few drops of oil on the floor. Does anyone else have this issue? My feeling is that the front seal is bad or installed wrong or both.
Thoughts please.
Thanks
Jim Hilton
43119

[John D.]

Re: Mid Year Front Seal leak

Jim, It shouldn't leak for sure. I'd ask the engine builder fix it if it were mine. John

[Clem Z.]

you should put some lube on the seal and damper

so the seal does not "burn up" when you start a fresh engine. it takes time for the oil to get to the seal on a fresh rebuild and a "dry" start will screw the seal up.

[Stephen L.]

Re: Mid Year Front Seal leak

You might have a groove in the crankshaft fro the original seal. Ask if the engine builder installed a sleeve on the crank that came with the seal

[Mark #28455]

sleeve on dampener *NM*

[Stephen L.]

Re: sleeve on dampener

OOps, Your right! The surface of the dampener is what the seal is in contact with, not the crank shaft itself, so the sleeve would go on the dampener.

[Frank C.]

Re: Mid Year Front Seal leak

Jim....besides all the comments from others another thing to watch for is a cracked keyway in the hub of the dampener. A little hard to detect if your just looking at it. I've seen several with a crack and it will leak oil. Although quite common on BB engines I have seen mouse motors with the crack....Regards Frank

[Clem Z.]

you should put a dab of non hardeneing

sealer on the front end of the key to seal that area also from leaking oil. if the leak is from the keyway the oil will be on the face of the damper and on the back if it is the crank area seal

[Michael B.]

Re: you should put a dab of non hardeneing

Another thing with SBC that often appears to be a front seal leak is the passenger side upper accessory mounting bolt hole. This bolt hole needs a bolt in it and it should have the threads sealed. New crank seals should not seep, even a little. Your engine builder doesn't want to accept the responsibility.

[Frank C.]

Re: you should put a dab of non hardeneing

Clem...with all due respect, I want to know if there is a problem and if you mask it you wont know if the balancer is ready to leave the scene of the accident...Regards Frank

[Mark #28455]

Keyway is not exact size of key

The crank with key installed does not exactly fit the dampener. The keyway in the dampener is a little deeper than needed in case the key was not exactly inserted - remember, the production line cranked these engines out at a high rate. AFAIK the factory always sealed the keyways, otherwise they'll leak oil, but then again, my experience is 99% BB engines.
Mark

[Clem Z.]

same thing applies to the differential yoke

because if you do not use a thin layer of sealer on the splines you could have a leak